During the off season in 2008, the player everyone wanted was Ryan Malone. He combined skill and strength and was really careening towards an awesome career. Pitt refused to sign him for the money he wanted. All fans were gaga for him.

Malone signed in Tampa. Seven years, $31.5M. ($4.5/yr)

His last year in Pitt, he had 51 points. Five years into his big Tampa deal, he hasn't topped that.

NAS, we go through this every single off-season. The prudent thing is usually to look for supplementary parts to the existing team, which is the course that PC usually takes, other than that first year where he pursued Savard and Chara as the building blocks of his new team. Since then it's about filling in the parts.

Despite that every single off-season we get hundreds of posts about going after the big fish, and despite the Bruins cap issues and the unlikelihood of this happening, I expect we'll see hundreds again this season.

I think it's more likely that we see someone like Wellwood, Bouchard or Raymond, than an Iggy, Ribeiro, Clarkson, Elias et al.

Im not even sure ufa is the way to go. Cammalleri sure has been clutch in his career. Trading peverly and a pick for him means its a 2.75 cap hit. I know calgary has to go along with it but hes available. They are close to the cap basement so bringing peverly keeps them there, Plus they add an asset going fwd. He is more then money come playoff time.

Edmonton has hemsky who is a pp wizard. What does edmonton need? A 3rd line center who wins draws and can produce. Hello kelly plus a pick for hemsky.

Peverly and Kelly hold value to teams. Their cap hit isnt terrible

the ufa available are tempting but to me there is no slam dunk among them. Clarkson is my favorite just bc of his compete level. But he is not worth 5 million a year.

I'm grateful that PC seems to avoid the bad signing as well as anyone. GM's are routinely credited for good signings and balmed for bad ones, but perhaps the best skill is just knowing when to stand pat and pass on options that are not worth the risk. PC should be credited for that.

I'm rooting for Mason Raymond, or someone like that. A good skill set for the 3rd line and he won't break the break and screw the cap.

It depends on what you consider a Big Fish? If you look at "fish" from last year: Parise, Suter, Carle, Boyes, Whitney, Prust, etc... Obviously Parise & Suter were Big, but I would also have included the others as Big. How would some of those guys have looked on the B's roster? Would any of them been worth the money? Most of the time, the "Big Fish" are overpaid, but isn't that the nature of free agency.

Street hockey is great for kids. It’s energetic, competitive, and skillful. And best of all it keeps them off the street.

There aren't many players worth wading in on, but last year was a new breed of stupid. I would say Suter and Parise were terrific on ice additions for the Wild - Norris finalist on the one hand and their leading scorer on the other, though not close to a point/game player. But in Cap terms, the Wild are in tough. Suter is the premium penthouse on top of a crack tenement that is that defense - Brodin is young and talented but beyond that? More kids and not all ready to make the leap - nor do I think Brodin will avoid growing pains as he assumes more responsibility and relies less on Suter. They need upgrades there, and Backstrom is already starting to decline. Heatley has a year left, and that will help, but team building from within is going to be essential for them.

Im not even sure ufa is the way to go. Cammalleri sure has been clutch in his career. Trading peverly and a pick for him means its a 2.75 cap hit. I know calgary has to go along with it but hes available. They are close to the cap basement so bringing peverly keeps them there, Plus they add an asset going fwd. He is more then money come playoff time.

Edmonton has hemsky who is a pp wizard. What does edmonton need? A 3rd line center who wins draws and can produce. Hello kelly plus a pick for hemsky.

Peverly and Kelly hold value to teams. Their cap hit isnt terrible

the ufa available are tempting but to me there is no slam dunk among them. Clarkson is my favorite just bc of his compete level. But he is not worth 5 million a year.

is that the same Hemsky that spends as much time on the DL as he does on the ice?.... plus the B'S add an extra 2mil. in salary and throw in a pick to boot?....

I have a feeling that teams are going to race to low ball MacTavish on Hemsky and Horcoff. They're lame ducks, and I can see them losing opportunities to show they can still play once teh season starts.

Here's an interesting bit of gas for the Oil fire: they can't win a faceoff to save their lives. The only guy to take over 120 faceoffs and win more than 49% of them was 36 yr old Eric Belanger. Gagner, Nugent-Hopkins and Horcoff took 1792 draws between them (top three guys by draws taken) and won...44.4% of them combined or 796/1792. If you're looking for a reason why a team with that much young horsepower is still so bad - they never have the puck!

Ritchie Pevbora was 58.4% in the regular season, 63% in the playoffs. Even at last year's pace, he'd slot in as the 7th best scoring forward on the team - top of the bottom six. They were 9th in PK - that would improve.

The more I think about this, sending Peverley to Edmonton shouldn't be a dump for a player like Hemsky - it should be to get Yakupov!

I mostly agree that UFA is not the way to go, despite the success the Bruins have had, ...Chara and Savard are huge examples of where it worked,...too many to mention where it has not,

I would like to see the Bruins build a little more speed into their line up without losing any of the toughness. Bump Seguin up to top line,.., bring in some one from Providence ( Spooner) ....hang around mid of the pack and if there is a chance, add at the trade deadline and go for a long playoff run,..this team knows how to win and what it takes ( Bergeron's influence should be legendary on this group) ...think we are still really close

Bump Seguin up to top line,.., bring in some one from Providence ( Spooner) ....hang around mid of the pack and if there is a chance, add at the trade deadline and go for a long playoff run,..this team knows how to win and what it takes ( Bergeron's influence should be legendary on this group) ...think we are still really close

NAS, we go through this every single off-season. The prudent thing is usually to look for supplementary parts to the existing team, which is the course that PC usually takes, other than that first year where he pursued Savard and Chara as the building blocks of his new team. Since then it's about filling in the parts.

Despite that every single off-season we get hundreds of posts about going after the big fish, and despite the Bruins cap issues and the unlikelihood of this happening, I expect we'll see hundreds again this season.

I think it's more likely that we see someone like Wellwood, Bouchard or Raymond, than an Iggy, Ribeiro, Clarkson, Elias et al.

This is what I admire about Chiarelli, red. His moves seem to be measured for maximum effectiveness and benefit. I don't think we have to look any further than Sather to see a GM who appears to go big-name hunting almost every year.